To Pluck an Apple
by Charlie King
Summary: An AU story where Yako is playing the role of Belle, and Neuro is the 'Beast'. Based on Once Upon a Time logic that all storybook characters live in the same world.
1. Chapter 1

There was snow on the ground, the birds away for the winter and no song to greet her in the morning. Yako was living out in the woods alone, the people that normally lived with her gone to trade with the townsfolk for goods that would be needed in the colder winter months.

The young girl opened a window to let the crisp air in while she went to work, preparing herself a simple breakfast. It had been 12 years now that she had lived out here, far from the home she had been born too after being found wandering the woods as a child. The blonde haired youth didn't remember much before her life here, having only been 5 when she had been found. She had been lucky that the family of brothers had taken her in at all, with times as hard as they were for the working class. Yako had earned her keep though, cleaning the house and cooking the meals. Mending clothes and working in the small garden they used in the warmer months to grow their own vegetables.

Things had been good the way they were, and Yako had even had chances to earn herself some money doing such things, allowing her to buy things she didn't really need, but enjoyed all the same. Her most recent of these purchases had been a set of hair-clips. The girl wasn't sure how often she would get to wear them, but she'd gotten them all the same, a gift to herself on her 17th birthday.

After her breakfast, the now fed Yako set about gathering the bedding, taking it outside to beat out the dirt and bugs before the cold grew to such that she would no longer be able to do this. The girl wore a simple garment while completing her chores, a dress of faded blue and yellow that kept her warm, despite it's years, as she worked. The brothers she lived with weren't expected back for days yet, and that would give her time finish everything that needed to be done.

The brown eyed girl was so engrossed in her work, that when a man came out from the trees, dressed in all black with a long cape that never seemed to touch the ground, seeming to study the cabin, that she didn't even notice him. Not until he passed in front of her, circling the building as if deeming whether or not it was worth his time. The stunned girl stared at the man, surprised she hadn't heard his steps on the fresh snow and even more so that he was looking at her home, but completely ignoring her presence. It was only after he seemed finished looking over the building that he turned to look at her, giving her a once over before smiling and muttering something. After that he took back to the woods, leaving the girl to wonder if she had even seen something real, or if it had been a spirit.

It wouldn't be for a few more days, on the brothers' return, that she would learn that an old castle that was just a few miles from their little home had been cleaned out and renovated, and that some secluded count had taken to living there.

It would be months before Yako saw the strange man again.


	2. Chapter 2

Three months had come and gone. The snow had started melting just a few days ago, the green of the forest already quickly returning. Yako was working at the soil of the family's little garden, helping to break it up so it would be ready for the planting after all the snow as gone.

The blonde girl had long forgotten the instance of the strange man investigating the little home, her mind on more important things as she did her best to keep the two brothers she lived with in check while they were stuck for the winter. The younger of the brothers was easier to handle, but it was the elder one, the one that did most of the hunting and kept them safe whenever road bandits attempted robbing them, that was harder to keep calm. The young girl had noticed though, that over the last few weeks as the weather warmed, the older brother had been spending more and more time with the lone hunter that lived on his own down at the river. She didn't mind, glad for the break.

Yako was musing over the things she would need do do before planting as she worked, her round face scrunched up as she was lost in thought. After the girl was done with the garden ground breaking, she would have to get herself ready to make a trip into town. They would need supplies now, for the growing months. Enough seeds to plant the whole of the plot, and last year one of their spades had snapped, so they would need another as well as other little things needed throughout the home.

The sun had already started peaking over the treetops when Yako rubbed the sweat from her forehead, finally finished with her morning chore. The young blonde went inside, washing the dirt from her hands in the washbasin in her room, moving to her closet to change out of her working clothes. She had never been a flashy girl, putting on one of her rather plain, light blue dresses before brushing out her short blonde hair, adding in her new clips to either side. The small girl smiled a little in her hand mirror, imagining what she might have looked like if she had been given a greater gift of beauty, like the girls she saw in town. With a little sigh she set the mirror down, gathering together some bread and a bit of cheese, since she was given to fits of hunger and the girl didn't want to be stuck without food. With that, and the money in her pocket, Yako left the home with a good bye to whoever might be left in it, since the brothers had yet to be seen.

The walk to the village took Yako three hours, the girl having made it through half of the food she had brought just after getting to her destination. The errand running itself was rather boring, greeting old friends and meeting new babies that had been born over the winter. She wondered if she would ever be like that, happy with a home of her own and a baby in her arms. She couldn't help the laugh that bubbled to her lips at the thought of her brothers meeting any man she brought home.

With the rest of the errands done, and a sturdy wicker basket filled with the things she had purchased, she sat down outside the town to finish off the last of the food she had brought. The girl mused to herself about the future, though nothing further than what she was going to make for dinner tonight.

If Yako had had any sense at all, she would have known she as being watched by the very same man that had been at her home only months before.

(The next chapter will be covering the months of winter that passed in Neuro's point of view.)


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter is Neuro's side of things for the winter months.**

Inside the cold walls of the castle, a figure sat alone. The figure stared out over the snow that lay so heavy over the earth, a stark white contrast to the dark brick of the being's home.

Neuro stood from where he had sat by the window, placing the book he had read back in its spot before leaving the vast library once more in darkness. Few footsteps were ever heard in these cold halls, the Count keeping on staff only the minimum number of workers to keep the place running.

Neuro's heeled boots made a hallow kind of clicking noise that echoed through the castle as he made his way to his personal living quarters. He pushed open two large doors, hand carved from the deepest red wood his predecessors could find. The dark-haired male made his way to his wardrobe, pulling the doors of it open and grabbing out the heaviest coat he owned. He then took out his boot covers, to help keep the snow from getting into said boots, and closed the wardrobe.

He clasped the boot covers over his legs before draping the coat over his arm and making his way out of his room. The doors closed behind him on their own as he made his way back down the halls, to the great hall where he finally put the coat on over his clothes. The thing didn't seem to have any buttons, but it managed to stay closed all the same.

The doors to the outside opened on their own, just the way his bedroom doors had closed without a seen helping hand. After all, he couldn't very well be expected to push open 30 foot tall solid doors on his own, now could he.

The snow barely made a noise under his shoes, far quieter than the noisy echo of his home's halls. As he made his way to the woods, the animals seemed to sense him coming, for not a chirp could be heard as he walked along. It had been this way his whole life. No living, wild thing would come near him, and even animals that had been trained to be around him from their birth still startled at the sight and smell of him coming near. Neuro had given up on having a pet long ago, when he was still of such an age that a boy should be out playing at hunting with a dog who's ears were much to long for his body. But Neuro never played at hunting as a child. He knew from the moment he could walk that he was different. A demon's child some whispered where they thought he couldn't hear.

Neuro's father had lost his wife in a winter much like this one, the poor woman having succumb to the chill of the night. No heir had been born to his father, but that next fall, just before the cold settled in again, a babe had been gifted to the previous count. And that child grew into Neuro. And so, while his father claimed he was a gift from the man's dearly departed wife in heaven, everyone else, including Neuro knew the truth of it. He was a demon's child, cast away in the cold human world, as good as dead to any blood relations he may have had.

Even still, Neuro grew up looking as normal as any other boy, though perhaps a bit pale, as if he could never quite get enough sun on him. And now, here he was. Back in the home in which he grew. His father had died months earlier in the summer home they had moved to when Neuro became 16. He was now of age 28, and had just come into the counthood his father had passed onto him.

Must of the land had stayed the same as he remembered it, wandering aimlessly through the woods as he did, taking old paths that had been long forgotten but somehow he still knew. He went on this way for hours, though for Neuro, who was lost in his own mind, it was only moments since he had left through the front doors.

It wasn't until the man had heard something other than his own soft steps that he stopped, pausing in whatever musing was happening unseen in his mind. He turned toward the sound, seeing a little house just past the thicket of trees to his right. He couldn't see what was making the noise, and so he moved, quietly so, in the direction of the house. Even when the source of the noise was spotted, a young girl with golden hair, Neuro pretended not to pay her any mind, acting out as if he were inspecting the home itself, and not actually her. He couldn't help to smile to himself when she finally stopped her singing, noting how long it had taken the girl to even notice him. He finished his round of the house, all the while taking silent account of how the girl seemed to live, before finally turning to her. She wasn't very pretty, but she wasn't homely either. Rather, she was average. Her hair, now that he could get a better look, shone like gold. Her eyes seemed older than the girl herself, which made the man wonder just what she thought she had been through to dare having eyes that betrayed her wisdom. He smiled a little more this time, his pointed teeth carefully hidden behind his lips as he did so. He thought moving back to the dusty old castle would have proved boring. But with a girl as interesting as this so close to him, he felt differently now.

"Be sure to make it to spring." He muttered under his breath before turning, finally leaving the girl to her chores to return to his own home.

The winter months had been boring, Neuro never having a chance to go and check on the odd girl who lived in a cottage just outside his lands. He had too many papers to sign, people to meet and even a few parties that he had to hold in honor of his new title. In truth, the only reason the others of royal and high status came to his dark home at all was in hopes of marrying off their daughters. He didn't see the point in marrying to a terrified young girl that had heard nothing of him other than the rumors of how cruel he was. That he beat girls and ate their skin straight from their still breathing bodies. He couldn't help but smirk at that one. It was new to him, that was for sure. And in all honesty, the only thing that he had noticed about himself that was any different from any other normal human was his two toned hair, his rather sharp teeth and, of course, his powers. But outside of that, he couldn't imagine what gave these people the tinder to start such silly rumors with.

Soon, the winter months had passed. He had met one girl of worth, Akane, who he'd managed to talk into becoming his personal advisor of sorts. The girl was far too smart to be married off and used for child production. Of course, what parent would ever say no to the evil demon living in the dark castle? And so, with one more staff added to his still short list, he passed the last month of winter quietly. It wasn't until the snow started to melt from the trees, creating little puddles of freezing water that he had a chance to leave his home again. This time, when he made it to the cottage, there was no one home. He mused to himself, wondering if the girl had died before noticing the ground of what seemed to be a freshly tilled garden. He knew there was a town close to here, and it didn't take him long to find it through the winding path. And there, he heard it. Footsteps. He pushed into the trees as they came closer to him, only stopped a short ways off from where he hid. Neuro made his way closer, not even twigs cracking under his careful feet.

He was pleased to see the girl he had been looking for, sitting on a rock and enjoying what seemed to be a simple lunch before she would make her way home. He was surprised at himself though, for being glad that she had lived through the winter. He told himself it was just because he wanted to ask her how she had gotten such old eyes, but in the coming months, and with time actually spent with her, he would realize the truth. That time had not yet come though, and so, satisfied to see her alive, he turned and made his way back home, much to the relief of the ever worrying Akane.


End file.
